About Stu Kushner

Stu Kushner began his career at Boeing Commercial Aircraft and then on to Hexcel and Case/Rixon where he specialized in CAD/CAM (computer design and robotics). In 1986, he started Progressive Office. The earliest years were about networking small businesses and providing IT support. But since 2008, the company has concentrated exclusively on providing office network cabling solutions.

Wireless Access at Hotel Saves Clients

28 Dec 2009

I met with the General Manager of a Holiday Inn in Northern Virginia. She manages a 200-unit building in Arlington, Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. Her property provides rooms and facilities to handle meetings and conferences for vacationers and business travelers. She told me that she is trying to get wireless access installed into her building because she is losing business and wasting money.


She said that her hotel is providing free Internet access but her competition is providing free wireless access. Clients and management prefer wireless because it is much easier to manage and access. Clients don't like having to plug in a cable and having to make changes to their network settings to enable network access. Management does not like having to deal with multiple failure points in managing the hundreds of routers spread throughout the building. There is one in each room.


So, they have a lot of complaints about Internet access. It is not convenient. Sometimes clients don't even have a patch cable. So, the problems are overwhelming for both sides. Additionally, they have Meeting and Conference Rooms that are not hard-wired. So, every time they schedule a Conference for a business client they also have to pay their Internet Service Provider (ISP) to extend a bundle of network cables into the Meeting and Conference Rooms. As you can imagine, this is a hassle and a large financial expense. It cuts into their profit margins. And it is also a major inconvenience for both the staff and the customers.


We have presented a proposal to install network cabling and I expect to get approval in the coming weeks. It will save them time, money and reduce their efforts in providing reliable and fast Internet to their clients. I will update this posting as things progress.

Cat5,Hotel network cabling

Residence Inn Capitol Hill Wireless Access Cabling

28 Dec 2009

Cat5e,Hotel network cablingThe network cabling team at Progressive Office, Inc. headed by Richard Elbe successfully completed the network cabling at the Residence Inn on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Residence Inn General Manager Patrick McManus says, "The job had challenges but alof our expectations and goals were reached or exceeded."


The job involved installation of Cat5 cable to all of the odd floors of the 13 story property. Each floor has access panels installed that safely host surface-mounted wall jacks inside of the ceiling on each floor. Riser cables were minimized by consolidating cables to patch panels on every fourth floor. The system now provides Innflux with the infrastructure to enable wireless access throughout the property including the Meeting and Conference Rooms.


The job was completed on budget and on-time with no extra charges or cost overruns. Progressive Office specializes in hotel cabling to enable wireless access services to guests. Please call Stu at 202-462-4290 or click on the icon to submit a response to a Questionnaire that will enable us to provide a quote for your hotel.

Office Cabling Network Cabling

Printer Security Issue – Scanned Images on hard drives

27 Dec 2009

Office Cabling, Network CablingModern printers, scanners and photocopying machines often have a similar hard drive to those found in computers. And these machines as a convenience to the user automatically store any document that has been printed or copied on the hard drive. This technology dates back to around 2004. So, it is now very common to have a printer or copier that is storing images on an internal hard drive.


This means that these devices may contain sensitive data on the hard drive which must be destroyed. This is often an overlooked security issue which could result in a data breach. Tax returns, photo IDs and other sensitive business documents are regularly copied and printed on office systems.


The security breach occurs because when several copies of a document are needed, the document is scanned just once and the copies are made from the file that has been saved on the hard disk. This data can be accessed by removing the hard drive from the printer or copy machine and connecting it to a PC. And there are no existing standards which state how the data on these devices should be permanently removed however the same measures must be practiced as when erasing computer hard drives.


If you plan on selling or trading in your printer or copier, first verify if it has an internal hard drive. If it has one, use the same precautions you would use if you were removing a computer or server from your office network. Remove and erase or destroy the internal hard drive data.


If you need help, please contact us!

Office Cabling, Network Cabling

Laser Printer Technology and Advantages

24 Dec 2009

                                                                 Office Cabling, Network CablingLaser printers are the most expensive type of printer in terms of running costs, due to the cost of the toner cartridges. But the cost per page for black and white printing is usually less than for inkjet printers.


The toner is the same type of toner used in photocopiers. And laser printers emulate the final stage of what a photocopier does by using a statically charged drum to attach toner to the paper. No liquid ink is used. The powdered toner is statically stuck to the paper when it passes over the rollers, and is then very quickly heated to fuse it to the page. The laser market is predominantly black and white, as nearly all businesses use the technology to produce cost-effective printouts. Laser printers ability to produce crisp, exact quality for text makes it the best choice for printing most corporate documents.


Laser printers are now quite capable in printing graphics as well. But for clear, color printing, color laser printers are ideal. And as their prices continue to decline, they are becoming more popular. But, again as with color inkjet printing, the cost per page goesup dramatically with color laser printers because they use 3 or 4 toner cartridges.


The primary market for color laser remains companies who are looking toLaser printers ability to produce crisp, exact quality for text makes it the best choice for printing most corporate documents. (the quality of a well-done color laser printout is really something to behold), and professional reprographics companies. But further price competition is making color laser a viable option for home users.

Network Cabling, Data Cabling ,Cat5e ,Cat6/6a Cabling

Computer Network Patch Panel

23 Dec 2009

Network Cabling ,Data Cabling, Cat5e, Cat6/6a CablingA patch panel is an in-line series of connections mounted onto a frame to enable network cables to be terminated in an orderly manner. Typically, the panel is the termination point of network cabling drops that are installed in a office or residential cabling system.It is numbered and comes in 12-port, 24-port, 48-port and 96-port configurations. The numbering of the panel ports allows for the network installer to label the wallplates to match the corresponding connection at the patch panel.


Patch panels are most commonly used for computer data networks but as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone systems become more common, we are seeing phone systems being terminated into panels. They are wall or rack-mounted. In small offices, a 12 or 24-port patch panel might be wall-mounted to a wooden mounting board. Larger office networks will usually require a rack mounted series of  panels.


The patch panel comes in Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 types to match the cable being installed. The connections on the panel are RJ45 that are designed to allow for a cable to "punch-downed" into the connector. The connector has 8 punch down points to accommodate the 4-pairs of wires in a Cat5/6 cable.

Reflections on my visit to Cebu

15 Dec 2009
 Internet, data cabling

I'm in the Philippines. I have been here for 10 days and I have about 10 more days to go. I love it here. The people are very friendly and gracious. The town is quaint, simple and unassuming. The pace is relaxed. The climate is a bit warm for my liking. But after the midday heat passes, I am fine. There is water everywhere and everyone loves to sing and dance. The families are close and supportive.


What I find disturbing is the inability for so many people to

Read More

Office Cabling ,Network Cabling

USB 3.0 Advantages

29 Oct 2009

USB-3.0, Office Cabling, Network CablingUSB 3.0 is coming at the end of this year and it has the potential to make a significant difference in your computing experience. If you bought your computer any time after the year 2000, it probably came equipped with at least one USB 2.0 port. However, later this year computers will start shipping that include USB 3.0 ports, which can transmit data up to ten times as fast.


Here's what to expect.




  • Dubbed "SuperSpeed," USB 3.0 is much faster at transferring data than its predecessor. The current 2.0 ports can transfer packets of information at speeds of 480Mbit/s, but the 3.0 spec will be able to handle 4.8 to 5Gbit/s.

  • USB ports can transfer not only information but also electricity to peripherals, which will make a whole slew of new product ideas possible. While energy transfer is nothing new in USB ports, the new version will transfer more power so that products will recharge faster.

  • The new USB 3.0 will still work with your old USB 2.0 connector. It will auto-sense the connection and downshift to the appropriate data transfer rate.

  • USB 3.0 is bi-directional in that it transfers data in and out from the device to your computer at the same time. USB 2.0 was only able to transfer data in or out but not able to send and receive data in both directions at the same time.


Contact UsIncreased speed, higher energy transfer and bi-directional data transfer promises to help bring a lot of new product ideas for your computer and other USB 3.0 devices. Maybe you can even take a USB 3.0 Flash Drive to your Redbox and plug it in and get a movie. The possibilities are endless and exciting!

Windows 7 Release Opinion

21 Oct 2009
An opinion from my good friend, Kevin Tiahrt...

 cabling, network cablingI thought I would throw out my two cents on the release of Windows 7. It is tomorrow, October 22. I have been working with it for the past few months and think that it is 90% better overall than Windows Vista. I will not go into the myriad of reasons except to say that it is considerably more compatible with XP and some of the older applications and peripherals than Vista was. Microsoft went so far as to design a copy of Windows XP into Vista so that you can literally run XP inside your Win7 computer simultaneously just in case you have a very antiquated application that absolutely, positively will not work on anything data cabling, network cablingexcept XP (also for those that are afraid to commit to a newer operating system).
Read More
Technicians,repair services

Our Disposable Society

19 Oct 2009
Technicians,repair servicesToday I was contacted by a potential customer that has an HP OfficeJet Pro 8500. He wrote that the printer is displaying a paper jam error message and that it seems to have a broken gear inside but that there is no evidence of paper actually jammed in the printer. The printer costs $300 to replace and he is concerned about  the costs of repair.

In my email response to him I wrote...

We charge $125 for on-site repair plus $3 for cleaning materials plus parts. The parts could be anywhere from a few dollars to over $100. The problem is that getting parts puts us at the mercy of the manufacturer because these machines are all proprietary. So, even if it just needs a gear, it might mean that we have to buy an entire internal printer assembly to get the gear. So, I can't tell you exactly
Read More
1 33 34 35 36 37 39